West Bromwich Albion's Peter Odemwingie celebrates after scoring against Sunderland at The Hawthorns. Photograph: Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto

Odemwingie 81

From Tashkent via Lagos, Seoul, Beijing, Moscow and various points in between, the Nigeria forward Peter Odemwingie finally fetched up in West Bromwich late on Thursday evening.

That only one, far-from-strenuous training session was all his new manager, Roberto Di Matteo, needed to decide Odemwingie was ready to lead the Albion line single-handed may say as much about the quality of the club's other forwards as it does about the newcomer's remarkable powers of recovery. But none of those left on the bench – including Roman Bednar and Simon Cox – could possibly argue it was not the right decision.

While they might have been inclined to do so after Odemwingie pulled his shot wide when through on goal in the seventh minute, there was no gainsaying the instinctive finish from a similar position nine minutes from time that won the Baggies the three points they deserved. Nor was there any doubting Odemwingie's fitness, work rate and know-how.

As Steve Bruce, the visitors' manager, pointed out, the number of times Odemwingie slipped away from the close attentions of the Sunderland centre-halves Paulo da Silva and Titus Bramble meant that, sooner or later, he would get the chance to redeem his earlier miss.

The impression that Albion have acquired an intelligent footballer was confirmed afterwards, when Odemwingie talked engagingly about the long road that lead to The Hawthorns. "It has been a difficult few days, because I had to fly from Moscow via China to Korea [where Nigeria played a friendly last week] to here and do my medical, which took all day and which wasn't easy because there was a lot of running," he said.

"Then I went back to Moscow, which was a time change again after a few days in Korea, and I was holding my bags in my hands, ready to go at any time because if I had arrived here a day earlier it would have been important for me to train. But they only gave me the work permit one day later so I flew in on Thursday night, and trained on Friday morning. The clearance to play came through at 10pm that night, so I could sleep well, knowing I could prepare for the game."

Odemwingie began his professional career in Belgium, then moved to Lille before signing for Lokomotiv Moscow. He has more than 50 international caps to his name and the £2m Albion have paid for his services already looks good value, but it will be outstanding if Odemwingie achieves his aim of "10-15 goals, minimum".

"I have been coming [to England] to watch some of my friends for a few years now and it is an atmosphere where a player will push himself to the maximum," Odemwingie said. "In Russia they play a lot of technical football, but the game is a bit faster here, they play it forward quicker, which suits me. After Albion lost 6-0 at Chelsea, some of my friends at Loko asked if I was doing the right thing, but I saw a lot of good play by the team in that game."

Di Matteo praised both Odemwingie's contribution and that of Albion's secretary, Richard Garlick, whose efforts in liaising with his counterpart at Lokomotiv ensured Odemwingie's clearance came through with moments to spare. "It was a team effort in every sense," said the former Italy international.